Top Ten Autumn Book Covers

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Autumn Book Covers.

When I think of Autumn, I think of yellow, orange, brown, and red. I think falling leaves, camp fires, and sunsets. There were so many yellow, orange, and red book covers that made me think "autumn" but I had to limit them because I would have gone way over 10. Here are my top ten...

1. Back to You by Priscilla Glenn
2. Until Friday Night (The Field Party, # 1) by Abbi Glines
3. After the Game (The Field Party, # 3) by Abbi Glines
4. Paris Lights (Heart of the City, # 1) by CJ Duggan
5. The Bird and the Sword (The Bird and the Sword Chronicles, # 1) by Amy Harmon
6. Long Way Home (Thunder Road, # 3) by Katie McGarry
7. Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, # 2) by Sarah J Maas
8. The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep
9. Walk on Earth a Stranger (The Gold Seer Trilogy, # 1) by Rae Carson
10. One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths, # 2) by KA Tucker

What are your top autumn book covers? Let me know!

Side Notes: Happy Birthday Husband! Also, how is that 2017 Series Enders button for autumn for you! Thanks to the Hubs for creating that for me!

Top Ten New Book Boyfriends

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten New Book Boyfriends.

Truthfully, I hate that phrase "book boyfriend". I'm perfectly happy in my own marriage so I don't particular wish I could date any of these guys, however, I have found some new guys to add to my list of hot and datable book characters. Here they are:

1. Rowan - Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas - Sarah J Maas does a great job writing slow building relationships. I cannot express the amount of love that I have for Rowan.
2. Rhys - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - Just like Rowan, Rhys took some time to grow on me, but I adore him also. Especially everything he was willing to endure for Feyre.
3. Hal - Shadowcaster (Shattered Realms, # 2) by Cinda Williams Chima - Hal is one of those should be the enemy guys, but it's really a good guy at heart.
4. Ambrose - Making Faces by Amy Harmon - Ambrose had quite a journey to undergo, but he was always good at heart. And he and Fern have another slow building relationship which I find usually provides the relationships with the most stable foundations.
5. Ryland - A Noble Masquerade (Hawthorne House, # 1) by Kristi Ann Hunter - Ryland is not what you'd expect from a typical hero from this time period. He has everything you love about the time period, and so much more. Plus he made me chuckle a few times.
6. Samuel - The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep - The epitome of a manly-man. He's made mistakes, but won't let those mistakes define him. His heart for his best friend as well as his daughter makes him something special.
7. Darrow - Red Rising series by Pierce Brown - Being in Darrow's inner circle means certain war and troubled times, but Darrow is loyal like no other. He isn't perfect, but he proves his worth time and time again.
8. Razor - Walk the Edge (Thunder Road, # 2) by Katie McGarry - It's been so long since I read this one that I don't remember all of the details, but I remember really liking Razor. Maybe even more than Oz.
9. Ben - November 9 by Colleen Hoover - I mean it's CoHo. Her main men are almost all quality, but I loved Ben's story and the fact that he's an author.
10. Bodee - Faking Normal by Courtney C Stevens - Oh Bodee...suffering from some severe trauma in his life, he's able to see the pain in another and can't stop himself from reaching out. I wish there were more Bodees out there.

I truly had to stop myself from making this entire list the super hot guys of the Throne of Glass series and A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Sarah J Maas knows how to write some hot guys in my opinion. I actually ended up having a harder time creating this list than I expected. Who are your recent adds to your "book boyfriends" list? Let me know!

Top Ten Hidden Gems

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Hidden Gems in X Genre.

I'm just doing hidden gems period because I couldn't come up with 10 in any one genre, but I'll mention the genre for each.

1. PS I Like You by Kasie West Contemporary- I feel like Kasie West is fairly popular, but I also feel like her books are sometimes overlooked because the plot isn't always a new idea and her books are mostly clean with little to no language or physical scenes. PS I Like You is one of my favorite Kasie West books. (review coming soon)
2. Shattered Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima Fantasy- I admit that the first book (Flamecaster) took some getting into, and personally I enjoyed book 2 (Shadowcaster) better, but looking at the number of ratings on Goodreads, this series is definitely under read and appreciated.
3. Hawthorne House series by Kristi Ann Hunter Historical Christian Fiction - Christian fiction just isn't read by mainstream, and in some cases I can understand why. I've enjoyed this series because of the time period and unique situations that the characters find themselves in. Each book has a unique circumstance that I haven't ever seen with this genre before. (A Noble Masquerade, An Elegant Facade [review coming soon], An Uncommon Courtship, and novella A Lady of Esteem, with upcoming release An Inconvenient Beauty)
4. The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep Historical Christian Fiction - Again, this is mostly featured because it is in the Christian genre which I feel is just under read in general, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
5. True Reign series by Jennifer Anne Davis Fantasy - You guys this series consumed me. I read the first two books in almost 24 hours which is unheard of for me. Granted, I was trying to squeeze in all the reading I could before Little Girl was born, but I didn't want to put these books down. (The Key, Red, and War)
6. Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy Dystopian - I never would have picked this book up had it not been that it was a freebie with Audiobook Sync one summer. But the book so closely paralleled events that were happening in real life at the time that I read this and similar events have continued to happen periodically since I read the book which was super scary. Plus I liked the characters.
7. Push by Claire Wallis New Adult, Romance/Suspense - I can't say that I absolutely loved the sequel as much as this first book, but I hadn't read anything like this. It was hard to clarify a genre for this one as it fits in several categories. Do beware of language and scenes.
8. Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes Christian Contemporary - I don't mean to feature so many Christian books as I really don't read THAT much Christian fiction, but as I've said before these are just under read books. And the ones that I like don't beat you over the head with religion. They're just good stories with great messages. This one especially had my tearing up and I can't imagine trying to read it now that I'm a mother.
9. Full Tilt by Emma Scott New Adult Contemporary - As the NA genre does have language and sexual scenes so does this book, but the story had me all up in tears. And the sequel, All In was good too.

Which books are hidden gems for you guys? Let me know!

Ten Books I Loved More Than I Expected

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books I Loved More Than I Expected.

1. Making Faces by Amy Harmon - My sister-in-law recommended Amy Harmon to me in the past (a different book), but I did not expect this book to be so layered and deep and beautiful and sad and happy. It has all the good things.
2. Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms by Tim Tebow - I'm not a football fan, but this book is one of the few non-fiction books that I've read in a day.
3. The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep - This particular time in history isn't my favorite to read about, but something about arranged marriages just seem to hook me.
4. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles - I wasn't sure I'd like a story where the main male character was in a gang, but turns out I did.
5. Faking Normal by Courtney C Stevens - I'd read a different book by Courtney C Stevens before this one and it was just okay for me so I wasn't sure I wanted to read more by her, but that book had a chapter from Faking Normal at the end of it and I was hooked that quickly.
6. The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West - Kasie West is one of my favorite authors, but this one just seemed to have a little something extra.
7. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick - I saw a ton of bloggers who loved this book when it first released. I was late to the game, but I expected it to be good. Yet somehow it was even better than I expected.
8. Unbreakable by Rebecca Shea - Colleen Hoover recommended this one on Facebook a couple of years ago. And come on...it's CoHo. She ought to know a good book when she reads on. Yet since I'd never heard of this author, I wasn't sure.
9. Catching Jordan (Hundred Oaks, # 1) by Miranda Kenneally - I wasn't sure I would like a book about a girl who plays football, but I really really did.
10. Red Rising (Red Rising, # 1) by Pierce Brown - The description of this one didn't really hook me at all, but I kept seeing bloggers give it 5 Stars, so I thought maybe this book was more than meets the eye. And turns out that it's now one of my favorite series.

What about you guys? Which books did you expect to like more or less than you did? Let me know!

The Captive Heart - Review

The Captive Heart

By: Michelle Griep

Expected Publication: October 1st 2016 by Shiloh Run Press

320 pages

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Proper English governess Eleanor Morgan flees to the colonies to escape the wrath of a an angry duke. When the Charles Town family she’s to work for never arrives to collect her from the dock, she is forced to settle for the only reputable choice remaining to her—marriage to a man she’s never met. Trapper and tracker Samuel Heath is a hardened survivor used to getting his own way by brain or by brawn, and he’s determined to find a mother for his young daughter. But finding a wife proves to be impossible. No upstanding woman wants to marry a murderer.

I don't know what it is about stories where the characters end up in a marriage that they didn't start off wanting that I love so much. Do you guys have any idea? Arranged marriages, Vegas sporadic marriages, marriage as a means to an end, fake marriages turned real. These stories intrigue me and pull me in just about every time. Think My Lady Jane, The Kiss of Deception, A Thousand Nights, Lick, Waking Up Married, and Redeeming Love. And The Captive Heart was no different. As a matter of fact, I think The Captive Heart and Redeeming Love have a lot of parts in common.

Honestly guys, despite my penchant for forced marriages, this book was really outside of my norm. I'm not normally a big fan of historical fiction even though I read it occasionally. While I always want my books to have some sort of love story in it, I'm also not usually into "romance novels". Even the book cover design isn't what I normally go for. I usually avoid books where someone's head or body seems to be floating in the clouds above some landscape scene. And what I didn't even know until I started reading this one is that this a Christian book as well. I don't usually avoid Christian fiction, but I don't always seek it out either. Even though I'm a Christian myself, sometimes the genre can be overly cheesy. But each one of those things added into a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Everything about this book pulled me in. Eleanor's found herself in an impossible situation. She was a governess for a wealthy family, but she finds herself married to a man to keep from being basically sold into slavery or sent to jail. She's immediately thrown into the role of caregiver (or mother) and wife even though she didn't choose either role. But she's tries to make the most of the hand she's been dealt. Samuel is a hardened man. His first wife is dead, he has this man set on destroying his life, and most everyone in town is afraid of him. He's lived a rough life for sure. Both lean on God to direct their paths.

Personally, I enjoyed the Christian aspects of this book. It wasn't a book that hit you over the head with a message like the author was trying to teach the reader as sometimes happens in this genre. I would recommend The Captive Heart both because of and despite of the religious parts. If this concerns you because you don't normally enjoy this in your books, I would encourage you to read The Captive Heart anyway. There was this one scene in particular that I would wager was just as hot if not more so than many steamy scenes in other books yet it was completely clean in language and action.

I feel like I'm not doing this review justice. My thoughts are all over the place, and I just have so much to say. I'll just include my favorite quotes and then wrap this up.

-"I am a man who's loyal to God alone."

-"Perhaps God is not calling you to live for peace, but rather to fight for it."

-He'd learned long ago that when a woman said nothing, she meant she'd die a bloody death before divulging what she thought he should already know.

-"Honor always comes at a price, else it would be worthless."

The Captive Heart is a book that is going to stick with me. I can see this being one that I'll want to re-read in the future. Fans of Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers will love this one. The Captive Heart proves that you don't need to dirty up a book with language or steamy bedroom scenes to make a book exciting or hot. The Captive Heart gets 4.5 Stars from me. Have you read The Captive Heart? What did you think? Let me know!